Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, the country’s minister of Science and Technology on Wednesday 8th August, 2018 stated that the South African government was aiming to increase funding of research in the technology sector in a bid to assist entrepreneurs in the innovation field to grow their businesses
He posited that the digital economy relied heavily on innovation, and thus it was crucial for the policy framework to be comprehensive and allow for the creation of an ecosystem that includes research, innovation and commercialization of innovations.
“We have for instance the Technology Innovation Agency, which is an entity under our portfolio, ready to assist innovators to commercialize their products. We invest as government in our young people with ideas and we also invite private investors to partner with us in making a success of the digital economy.”
“In South Africa, we would like to increase our funding for research as a proportion of our GDP to 1.5 percent and we also incentivize companies that conduct research through tax rebates. We have much clearer policy of intellectual property developed by the Department of Trade and Industry and we require investors to come a work with young innovators to commercialize these innovations.”
While speaking at the launch of the ‘Netpreneur Prize’ initiative established by the Alibaba Foundation, Kubai-Ngubane stated that the initiative has been established to create a community of 1 000 young e-commerce entrepreneurs from developing countries years to receive grants totaling U.S.$10 million by 2030.
